person but a pole, which was in the middle of nowhere, and that therefore the case could be hushed up without any fear. But Mr. Seksenbayev was adamant: he silently wrote up a report of what happened to Yerezhep, put it into a file, and left. Having forgotten about the broken teeth, Yerezhep wandered to the policeman’s house, but he would not let him in even to the yard. In the evening Yerezhep paid another visit to the district police officer, but he was not at home. ‘He has gone to the district,’ muttered the wife of the senior lieutenant. Yerezhep clutched his head. ‘That’s it, he’s gone. He’ll report, they’ll record it, they’ll put him in jail.’ And at that moment it dawned on Yerezhep: why was the neighbourhood policeman going to the district at night…? Just then, he saw the policeman’s five-year-old daughter looking for a cat on the porch. Yerezhep took three crisp roubles from his pocket and handed them to the girl. ‘Tell me where your daddy went and I’ll give you some money. You can use it to buy gum tomorrow.’ ‘Over there,’ the girl pointed to the grain store with one hand and grabbed the money with the other. He got on the cart and drove off. Yerezhep sat down in the place where the road was closest to the old cemetery. After an hour in the night there was the creaking of a cart. The divisional guard himself remained silent – apparently it was not very much fun to drive past the cemetery at night, and meeting people was not something he was very keen on doing. As the carriage drew nearer, Yerezhep jumped out onto the road and shouted: ‘Name! ‘Sex… Sex…’ Falling to the bottom of the donkey cart, the district officer held back the frightened donkey with all his might. ‘What kind of sex?!’ Yerezhep shouted. ‘Speak when you are spoken to!’ ‘Sex… Seksenbayev..’. ‘How many bags are you carrying?’ ‘Eleven…’ ‘So, citizen Seksenbayev…’ Yerezhep lowered his voice, but did not change his official tone. ‘Your crime is even worse than mine. So, either you tear up all the paperwork about my accident, or I will go to the police station myself. Good night!’ Now this Seksenbayev was sitting behind the dastarkhan with his eyes downcast, as if there was no man on earth more crystalline and humble… ‘And this